Supporting Screenshots and Videos
This walkthrough is, primarily, a narrative guide. Screenshots and a few videos are provided for additional reference but the narrative stands completely on its own. The screenshots and videos were all captured on a PS4 playthrough of the game played in parallel to the writing of the guide. Accordingly, they accurately depict the narrative of the guide.
Setting the Difficulty Level: Custom Master with over 700 Custom Difficulty Points
Begin a new game. Choose Custom difficulty. The other choices are Rogue (Easy), Thief (Normal), Master (Hard). We will be using Master as the base and adding modifiers to it. The game tells you that the Master difficulty has the following features:
- Opponents are deadly and civilian kills or knockouts are not tolerated.
- Resources and upgrades are more expensive.
- The focus meter depletes at a much faster rate.
We are not the least bit concerned. We want to get a trophy for finishing the game with no knockout or kills. We have no intention of killing or knocking out anyone, civilians or otherwise. We are going to be doing a streamlined playthrough. We only intend to buy essential tools. Since one of our modifiers will prevent us from acquiring upgrades, we could care less how expensive they are since we are unable to buy them. Finally, we want to earn a trophy for not using focus. We will be using a modifier that prevents us from using focus. We will have no focus meter so there will be nothing to deplete.
I bring this up because the Master difficulty is not much more challenging than the easy Rogue if you are playing a stealth game. This walkthrough emphasizes stealth and will provide you with relatively safe routes to reach your destinations.
The trophy for finishing the game with no kills or knockouts and the trophy for finishing the game without using focus are the game's only two missable trophies. By choosing the difficulty modifiers as we have, we are changing these two trophies from missable to non-missable.
The main thing that you would notice between Rogue and Master is that your adversaries are more aware. They have a greater field of vision and can detect noise more easily. The walkthrough will remind you of effective techniques during risky points. Two key aspects to internalize in your game play. First, approach hostiles from the rear as close to the six o’clock position as possible. Second, when you have to remain silent, use the technique of flicking or nudging the movement stick rapidly rather than keeping it pushed in the direction of Garrett’s movement.
Tip: Greater degrees of difficulty do not present a substantially greater challenge if your play style is stealthy. If you are aggressive and combative, greater degrees of difficult will substantially increase the game’s challenge.
Having selected our base level of difficulty, we want to select modifiers that will give us over 700 points of difficulty so we will be able to earn a major trophy. You have some flexibility. I will provide the list with my recommendations. The modifiers are divided into three categories—Classic, Legendary, and Ultimate. There are three that I consider deal breakers for a first playthrough and have crossed them out. I provide my recommendations below but you have some flexibility to change them around as long as the difficulty assessment is above 700.
Recommended difficulty modifiers:
- No Focus (Focus ability disabled) - 50 points : ON
- Stealth Takedowns Only (You cannot perform combat takedowns) - 50 points : ON
- Specialty Arrows Only (Only Blunt, Water, Fire and Rope Arrows enabled) - 50 points : ON
- No Food or Poppies (Food and Poppies are not consumable) - 100 points: ON
- Expensive Resources (Cost of resources are increased) - 70 points : ON
- No Upgrades (Non-critical tools, gear upgrades, and trinkets are disabled) - 100 points : ON
- No Kills or Knockouts (If human/animal is harmed in any way, mission fails) -170 points : ON
- No Alerts (If human/animal detects you, mission fails) - 145 points : ON
Below is a detailed discussion on the rationale for the selections. If you are not interested in that level of detail, you can skip down to “Start the Prologue.”
Classic:
- Chapter Saves Only (Manual saves disabled) - 180 points : OFF. No. We want to be able to save frequently. This is not a modifier for a first playthrough.
- No Focus (Focus ability disabled) - 50 points: ON. Yes. We want to earn a trophy for not using Focus. This will help us making the task easier.
- Stealth Takedowns Only (You cannot perform combat takedowns) - 50 points: ON. Yes. We want to earn a trophy for no takedowns whatsoever. We will also be using the “No Kills or Knockouts” modifier. These two modifiers will help us get the trophy.
- No Reticle (Reticle disabled for aiming) - 30 points : OFF. This is the crosshair that appears when you fire a bow. An experienced player does not need it because the objective glows when targeted. However, since this is our first playthrough, I recommend we use the crosshair and turn this modifier off. Nevertheless, we only use a total of nine arrows in the entire playthrough and several of them are optional. None of the arrows are fired under duress or in intense situations. So, this is a modifier that you may want to consider turning on if you want to make some modifications to the above setup.
Legendary:
- Specialty Arrows Only (Only Blunt, Water, Fire and Rope Arrows enabled) - 50 points: ON. The other arrows are combat arrows. Since we will not be doing any takedowns or kills, they are superfluous. This modifier will not bother us and suits our play style.
- No Food or Poppies (Food and Poppies are not consumable) - 100 points: ON. We are not using Focus so we have no use for poppies. There are only a couple of places in the game where our play style will put us at risk for damage. We need the 100 difficulty points much more than we need the food so we will turn this on. Refer to 5 below, Slowed Movement, for additional information regarding your choices.
- Zero Damage (If you take any damage, you fail the mission) - 60 points: OFF. There is some benefit for turning this on. There is a trophy for completing three consecutive chapters without damage. However, the other modifiers will virtually assure us of getting the trophy without the use of this modifier. There is one point in the final encounter where we would benefit from being able to take a hit that deals damage. For that reason, I am turning it off.
- Expensive Resources (Cost of resources are increased) - 70 points: ON. This playthrough has us buy very little so the expensive resources do not bother us.
- Slowed Movement (Overall movement is slowed) - 45 points: OFF. This helps you move silently but it is more annoying than anything else. There are two major encounters where we need to move quickly. If you would like to consume food, you could turn this modifier on in addition to the 'No Reticle' modifier. The food will allow you to recover health when taking damage. This walkthrough is a very safe playthrough and is designed to get you through with zero damage. There are a few instances where it is possible to incur fire or gas damage. Additionally, there are two boss encounters where there is the possibility of sustaining damage. This guide alerts you to the precautions you must take to avoid any and all damage. Nevertheless, the ability to consume food will reduce the amount of precision required for the playthrough.
Ultimate:
- Iron Man (If you die or fail a mission, you lose your entire game and have to restart from the beginning) -250 points: OFF. This is only for very experienced players who have virtually committed the game to memory. Note that the routes used in this playthrough were designed for an Iron Man run. So, although we will not be turning the modifier on, play with the confidence that the routes were designed to minimize your exposure to detection and physical risk.
- No Upgrades (Non-critical tools, gear upgrades, and trinkets are disabled) - 100 points: ON. Some players might find this desirable. The walkthrough is not heavily dependent on upgrades and trinkets. However, you could afford it if you turned on “No Reticle” and “Slowed Movement.”
- No Kills or Knockouts (If human/animal is harmed in any way, mission fails) -170 points: ON. This will help us get the trophy for finishing the game with no kills or knockouts.
- No Alerts (If human/animal detects you, mission fails) - 145 points: ON. We will be doing a streamlined playthrough emphasizing stealth. If we are detected, the game will restart you at the location of your most recent save.
- The recommendations above will give you a Custom Difficulty assessment of 735 points, comfortably meeting the criteria for the trophy.
Start the Prologue:
The purpose of the prologue is to teach the game. In order to teach you, it will allow you to do things that your difficulty modifiers would not allow you to do such as knocking out an opponent. Unlike the eight story chapters, it gives you no monetary rewards for style of play or ‘thieving challenges.’ Once you complete it, you are provided with some cut scenes and move directly into Chapter 1. The prologue takes about 10-15 minutes to get through the prologue and another 10-15 minutes to get through chapter 1 that, as just stated, immediately follows the prologue. These times take into consideration acclimating oneself to the game.
Overall, we are going to be very unconcerned with common loot, other than to earn one trophy. That one trophy we will earn in Chapter 1 by grabbing every item of common loot. We are doing that not only for the trophy but also because we’ll need 1000 gold to purchase the wrench tool that we will need for Chapter 2. Otherwise, we could have ignored the trophy for gathering all loot during Chapter 1 and obtained it while playing through on our second playthrough using the easy Rogue difficulty. The purpose of that Rogue playthrough, after all, is to obtain collectibles and find secret locations.
Since we need the cash, we will be picking up as much as we can during the prologue. However, we do not need to stress ourselves to find every item. If for some reason, you do not have enough cash for the necessary purchase, the walkthrough will provide a quick and easy way to make up the difference right after the end of Chapter 1. It’s called the pickpocket loop. In three minutes, we pickpocket five pockets for 60 gold—not to mention getting credit for the picked pockets. There is a trophy for picking 100 pockets in one playthrough.
Prologue Rule of Thumb: Pick up what you can but don’t waste a lot of time looking for what you have difficulty finding.
You start in Auldale Bridge at a studio apartment. Location names are not important in the Prologue where you are guided in a very linear fashion from checkpoint to checkpoint. However, after the Prologue, you will find it very important to orient yourself so we will start out adopting the process of being aware of our location.
There are twelve items of common loot in the apartment and no hazards. You are free to do as you please without adverse consequence. The gentleman asleep on the bed will not wake regardless of what you do. You will find that you can snuff out candles and may snuff out one inadvertently. Try to get in the habit of dousing lights only when you have compelling reason to do so. The game rewards play style. Operating undetected while manipulating the environment such as the dousing of lights is called Opportunist. Operating undetected without manipulating the environment is a more prestigious play style called Ghost. You are not assigned a play style for the prologue so there is no consequence for dousing lights. However, once the Prologue is over, doused lights will have an impact on how the game rates your play style at the end of each chapter.
Nevertheless, play style is not one of the fundamental things we need to be concerned about. Being rated Opportunist rather than Ghost will not have an effect on any trophy. The main reason we emphasize this is because the stealthier you become, the easier you will find it to clear the later more difficult chapters. So, throughout the walkthrough, we emphasize good stealth discipline using Ghost techniques.
In the Studio apartment, there are two items on the bed, three items in tables in the center of the room, and seven items in or on the furniture against the walls. Their total value is 106 Gold. When you’re done, exit the room’s North window, following the direction marker to cross a narrow beam. You’ll note that Garrett has very good balance. This is not a game where you have to use skill to keep from falling off a beam. Garrett does not fall off a beam unless you specifically make him drop off.
Garrett is still in the Auldale Bridge area. He enters an attic through a closed window. The game will prompt you to hold the interact button and then rapidly press it. You will often come across these windows during the game. You will always get the on screen prompts.
Unlike the studio apartment, the attic presents a challenge. There are seven caged birds in the apartment. Not only does the prologue require you not to alert them but one of our difficulty modifiers precludes us from alerting birds or animals. The result of doing so would cause the game to restart us at our most recent save.
Speaking of saves, in the Prologue, the only save that is available to us is the Checkpoint save. During the rest of the game, except when directly engaged, we pretty much are able to make manual saves at will. Each manual save supersedes the previous manual save so we would be able to load only the most recent manual save. However, we would have a choice between the most recent manual save and the most recent checkpoint save.
Tip: When permitted make frequent manual saves. They become available at the beginning of Chapter 1.
Getting by the bird cages is not that hard. When you enter the room with the cages, hug the left wall until there’s a bird cage right in front of you.
Note: Birds detect movement rather than visual cues. They especially detect Garrett when he swoops. So, Garrett cannot swoop near bird cages. In this playthrough, since Garrett fails a mission if he is detected, swooping near a bird will result in a detection, the mission will fail, and the game will revert to the most recent save.
Garrett will make a comment that there’s an interesting picture. The best way to the picture is to turn slowly to your right and go diagonally between the two cages closest to the wall with the picture. You will make no sound if you lightly flick the movement stick. This is good practice for when we have to use the utmost stealth at various points in the game.
When you approach the painting, you’ll be prompted to press the interact button that leads Garrett to search the painting. Your view will be of his two hands moving around the frame. Feel around the edges until you feel a slight vibration and the empty on-screen circle acquires a solid fill. Press the right trigger and the picture will slide up to reveal a safe. You now have to pick the lock of the safe. This is similar in principle to what you just did with the painting. Gently nudge the movement stick around until the controller vibrates and the corresponding empty on-screen circle fills. Press the right trigger to set the lock pin. There are three empty circles corresponding to three tumblers. Once you have set all three lock pins, the safe will open.
Inside the safe is the first collectible. Pick it up. It can be viewed in your journal by pressing up on the D pad. You’ll find it belongs to a category called Unique Loot and is named “The Glittering Plumage.” During the Rogue playthrough, we will be gathering each and every collectible for a trophy.
A disturbance, not of your doing, agitates the birds. You are not penalized for it but must exit the window to the North—left of the safe you just opened. You will be prompted to discover a rope arrow and target an ‘anchor beam’ above you. It is called an anchor beam because the wood is wrapped with rope that allows an arrow with a trailing rope to securely stick in the beam. There are quite a few of these anchor beams throughout Garrett’s world. In this Custom Difficulty playthrough, we will be very judicious in their use in order to conserve our rope arrow resources and our gold. Before each chapter, if you require rope arrows in inventory, the walkthrough will dutifully inform you of that and the number required.
You will be prompted how to jump on the rope and climb it. Do so. Then, follow the objective marker until you run into a girl, Erin, dressed similarly to you. A cut scene ensues after which you must follow Erin through the elevated areas known as the “Thieves’ Highway.” This is just an exercise in controlling Garrett using the run and jump trigger. If you are brand new to the game you might fail. If this happens, do not be concerned. The game will reload at the most recent checkpoint and you can try again.
You end up in a back alley in Auldale. The game explains about the Light Gem. When it is dark, you cannot be seen. When it is a bright white, you are completely out in the open. There is also an in-between state of different magnitudes when you are in the shadows—detectable but not easily so.
Tip: Get in the habit of keeping an eye on the Light Gem. Whenever possible, keep it so it is dark.
Before you start following the directions given, look in the Northwest corner for a pair of scissors and pick up a coin purse on the ground at the beginning of the alley running East. After you follow the directions given, the guards will move East. Erin will take off using a special climbing tool called a Claw. Not having such a tool, you have to go a different route.
There are several people you must not let detect you. Move slowly and silently due east into the shadows. There is a coin purse on the ground. There is a cup worth a mere 2 G to the South. You can pick it up, if you want, or just ignore it since it takes you out of your way. Hug the east wall and go North to a ladder. There’s another cheap cup in plain view on a barrel. You might as well pick it up.
Climb the ladder to return you to the elevated Thieves’ Highway.
Garrett meets up with Erin, again. After a brief conversation, you continue on. Erin challenges Garrett to see who can pilfer more. Ignore it. The challenge is just conversation and is not associated with game play.
The prologue gives you another quick tutorial on how the blackjack can be used to lower ladders. Do as the tutorial instructs and hit the pulley to lower the ladder. Proceed in the direction of the objective marker and enter the Voyeur’s Apartment (Auldale) through a window.
There are eight items in the apartment including a document. Some documents are important. This one is not. Although the voyeur’s apartment is not particularly important, there are some items of interest. The room you first find yourself in has a pair of scissors and a cup. There is a locked door. Although there are no hostiles here, it is always good practice to peek through the keyhole by pressing and holding the interact button. This confirms the adjoining room is safe and you can pick the lock and open the door with impunity. Picking the lock follows the same routine as the safe. The door, similar to the safe has three tumblers.
The remaining six items are in the room whose door you unlocked including the Voyeur’s Diary—the document mentioned above. You can see documents in your journal by pressing up on the D pad. When you do so, you can read it. Some documents are important insofar as they provide clues and other vital information. The Voyeur’s Diary does not fall into that category but you might find it an interesting read.
The Prologue leads you by the hand and you should not need any maps. The in-game map that you pull up by pressing up on the D-pad and selecting map is quite good. To help you get comfortable with the game, I have embellished the in-game map with the location of the eight items, a legend describing them, and an icon to indicate the locked door:
When you’re finished, exit through the North window and continue to follow the objective marker on the Thieves’ Highway. You will cross a beam and enter the Drop Location (Auldale).
Warning: There’s a caged bird in the Drop Location—move slowly and quietly. Do not go upstairs until you’re ready.
There’s a cup of little value out in the open. Moving slowly so as not to startle the bird, move to the Southeast corner. You’ll see a round plaque hanging on the wall. Beneath it is a brick highlighted in a different color. That’s because it is the secret trigger to open a hiding place. Use the action button to press the brick and reveal the secret hiding place. You’ll find a ring of moderate value and a valuable, 50G necklace. Take them.
Continuing to move slowly, head to the opposite side of the room and climb the stairs for a cut scene. After the cut scene, the scene shifts from Auldale to the Northcrest Manor. You begin in the courtyard. There is a well-lit area that you have to cross. The tutorial tells you how you can use the action button to quickly swoop. As shown in the map, get into position and swoop across. There’s a wine glass of little consequence. Move East to follow Erin. She’s looking at a guard to the South. He’s carrying a fat purse on his belt. You can’t pass up the opportunity and pick pocket him by pressing and holding the interact button. When the blue circle closes, you have successfully pickpocketed the 12G he was carrying:
After you pickpocket the guard, he will walk away. Proceed South and climb over the small obstacle. The tutorial will caution you about making noise moving through water. You are now in the Fountain Court of the Northcrest Manor. There is a small creek that you must cross. This is a good time to practice moving by flicking the movement stick. If done correctly, you should hear no sound.
There are four items of common loot in the Fountain Court Area. Two 1G coins are in the water. They are not difficult to get but simply not worth it unless you want to practice moving in the water. There is also a wine glass and an ash tray that are also not worth much. You will probably just stumble across them. If you don’t, they are not worth the effort to find. The fifth item is a water arrow. This is required to advance the Prologue.
After you cross the creek, first head to the shadows in the Southwest corner. There you will, most likely, stumble across the wine glass near a statue. Face east and swoop across the lit area. You will see a small box on a small round table. Open the box to find a water arrow. Had you been playing on an easier level of difficulty, there would have been more than one arrow. One arrow, though, is all we need.
Continue to follow the objective marker. You will be prompted to douse the light on the East wall. This is just a little more difficult that shooting the rope arrow into the anchor beam. If the crosshair (more accurately reticle because it’s a circle rather than a crosshair), starts wavering, cancel out of what you are doing. Garrett becomes fatigued. After aiming in at a target for a short while, he start to shake a little. The reticle become larger and Garrett will not be able to shoot accurately. This is easily remedied by canceling out of the action. The next time he aims in, he will be closer to the aiming point and will be able to lock on target more easily.
After you douse the light, the part of the creek to the East of the bridge is thrown into darkness. Garrett can now cross the same way he did the section on the west side of the bridge. After moving through the water, you are likely to stumble across the ashtray before moving up the stairs:
You are presented with another cut scene where Erin shows she is more combative than you. You are required to do a stealth knockout of a guard. Normally, our difficulty modifier would not allow this. If we attempted it, it would revert the game to the most recent save file. However, the rules are different for the Prologue and this is required to advance the game. Sneak up behind the guard and press the right stealth attack button. Press and hold the interact button while moving to the shadows east of where you knocked the guard out.
There is no danger here so we did not have to hide the body. Nevertheless, unless there is compelling need to the contrary (such as imminent discovery), we will always hide bodies when our difficulty settings allow us kills or knockdowns. Even if you are undetected when a body is discovered, there may be second and third order effects that will make your task at hand more difficult. Also, whenever you grab and hold bodies, you will acquire whatever the persons had on them.
Follow Erin and pick the lock on the door you come across. This takes you to another area of the Northcrest Manor—Right Wing – Entry. There is a guard with a bird’s eye view of a fairly well lit area you have to cross. The tutorial provides a solution. There are bottles. You can pick up one at a time and use it as a throwable. Follow the instructions in the tutorial and try to throw the bottle over the guard’s head and left of the guard from your perspective. You want the guard to be looking away from your hiding place in the dark Northwest corner.
As soon as you throw the bottle, pick up another one so you’ll have one on hand. Then, head to the Northwest corner. Wait there, in the dark, until the guard’s suspicions are allayed. When he reverts to normal and the threat icon above his head indicates he is unaware, move forward stopping to pick up the chess piece. Disregard the two gold coins and climb up on top of the gate. Do not jump down on the other side if you want to proceed as expeditiously as possible. There are items to be had in the yard but the juice is just not worth the squeeze unless you like to explore and/or like the challenge.
You are safe on top of the gate. Just follow East along the top. You reunite with Erin. The Prologue has one final task for you. You have to use the pickpocketing technique to pilfer Erin’s special tool, the Claw. It is right within your grasp and Erin is completely oblivious to what you are doing. Once you pilfer the claw, there’s a cut scene that ends the Prologue:
The Prologue counts as a chapter. We should not have taken any damage:
Cleared 1 of 3 consecutive chapters without taking any damage
Chapter 1: Lockdown
After some cut scenes, Garrett determines he needs to return to his hideout in the clock tower. He’s got a ways to go. Security is tight and the city is on lockdown. Garett needs to avoid the many guards roaming about. From a practical standpoint, if you explore the entire area, you will come across 15 guards. This chapter will take 10-15 minutes to complete, taking into consideration acclimating oneself to the game.
You now have intermediate objectives that you can choose to fulfil or not. They are called Thieving Challenges. We will be fulfilling two of them. We will remain undetected while pilfering all 60 common loot items. We cannot perform the predator challenge because our difficulty modifier prevents us from using violence. We also will not be doing the extinguishing flame challenge. First, because we don’t want to use any water arrows. Second, because, at this level of difficulty, a key character will react with suspicion if we extinguish candles in his room. Finally, even if you meet the conditions for satisfying more than two of the thieving challenges, the game will only reward you for two. On our second playthrough, we will be extinguishing flames but it will not be for the thieving challenge but for an achievements associated with extinguishing flames.
We need 1,000G in order to buy a special tool right after chapter 1 ends. On subsequent playthroughs with less stringent difficulty modifiers, the cost will be less. Nevertheless, in spite of the high cost on the Custom Master playthrough, the loot in addition to the thieving challenge rewards will get us there. Additionally, we will get a trophy for finding all common loot in a chapter. We could have left that till the easy Rogue playthrough especially since that playthrough is for collectibles. However, by finding every loot item, we will get an additional reward of 150G.
The most challenging item of loot is a jeweled mask worth 125G. Although it’s the most challenging, it is only of moderate difficulty. We don’t want to pass it up. Since we are going to be picking up the most challenging items, we might as well pick up the others as well. Later, once we are well funded, we will have little interest in going out of our way for common loot.
At the end of the chapter, you will get a mission summary which is like a report card. You can also check your progress in the journal by looking at objectives and statistics.
You start in a completely safe area. You’ll pick up a flask (loot 1 of 60) that’s in plain view. The gear (loot 2 of 60) is up high—you can reach it by climbing on top of the cabinet and looking west. There is also a document that you can read in your journal. When you have got these three items, exit the area by climbing the ladders shown in the figure. As you progress, pick up some food. You can’t use it but you can sell it.
In our Rogue/Easy playthrough, we will be more concerned about thieving challenges because we will be going after trophies related to thieving challenges. There are several including the prestigious Legend in Leather for completing 25 optional thieving challenges. The way the thieving challenges work in the main story chapters needs explanation. Even if you met all conditions for all four thieving challenges, you would only get credit for two of them. The game would determine your play style and give you credit for one of the top three challenges corresponding to your play style. If you lifted all loot items you would get credit for that, as well.
At the conclusion of a chapter, the game provides a pie chart of your different play styles. Normally, there would be three possibilities—ghost, opportunist, and predator. (Hybrid is not a play style but a statement that the thieving challenge applies to more than one play style). Because our difficulty modifiers preclude us from anything associated with the predator style, our pie chart can depict only the portion we spent in the ghost play style (dark gray) and the portion we spent in the opportunist play style (light gray).
The playthrough for this chapter is pure ghost. We do not take advantage of the environment as related to the opportunist play style and we remain undetected at all times. There is one area where dousing a candle will help you. It is not necessary. As a matter of personal preference, I strive for a solid dark gray pie chart indicating that my play style was 100% ghost. However, this has no bearing on trophies and, if you would like to use the environment, there is no down side. Your end of mission report would then include a pie chart with a dark gray slice depicting the proportion of your time you were in ghost and a light gray slice that corresponds to the proportion of your time that you were employing opportunistic techniques. Moreover, pragmatism is more important than style points. So, there will be occasions in this playthrough where we opt for a more convenient opportunistic approach rather than the 100% ghost style.
For every main story chapter, the fourth thieving challenge is lift all loot items. So, for the first chapter where we lift all loot items, we will get credit for two thieving challenges—remain undetected and lift all loot. We will not be going after all loot in any of the other chapters even on Rogue difficulty. Thus, we will be getting only one thieving challenge per chapter. The remaining thieving challenges for the trophies will come from client missions where the criteria are not as stringent. It is possible to get all thieving challenges on some client missions. On others, there might be mutually exclusive challenges. For example ‘remain undetected’ and ‘perform a combat takedown’ are mutually exclusive because the game always considers you detected if you are in combat.
Where we go after all loot in a mission or chapter, I change the legend in the illustrating graphics. You’ll note in the figure above, loot that counts towards the thieving challenge is depicted in orange Arabic numerals. Since the trophy we are going after entails pilfering not only all common loot in a chapter but also all collectibles in a chapter, we will track them as well. Collectibles will be tracked in red Roman numerals. Other items (documents, food, poppies, etc.) will be tracked using lower case letters. Finally, we shall use a C for cabinets or closets. The function as check points so the ‘C’ is triply appropriate. Guards are depicted with the letter 'G'.
At the beginning of the game, I will provide lots of supporting documentation to assist you in becoming proficient moving through Garrett’s world. As the game progresses, I will continue to show maps and routes for the Custom Master playthrough but will gradually omit routine explanations and concentrate on the tricky areas. The first chapter, though, will provide an exhaustive level of detail. For the subsequent 'mop-up' playthrough, I will provide maps with the collectibles, secret places, and other matters of interest. However, I will not be providing precise routes. By that time, you will be completely proficient in the game and will want freedom of movement. So, unless a certain technique must be used, I will leave the movement and routes up to your discretion.
Since there is no danger in the first area, Enclosure, you are free to explore as much as you’d like. However, there is no reason to linger after you pick up the four items so leave using the ladder to the North. There is a second ladder you must also climb.
When you get to the top of the second ladder, stop. Once you progress from this point, you will be crossing the first of three points of no return in this chapter. Pick up a gear in the Southwest corner (loot 3 of 60). When you are ready, you can follow the objective marker and continue. You are still in an elevated position looking down on Stonemarket, Traitorsgate. There is a short cut scene with two guards. After their conversation, they separate.
Stay in your elevated position. Make a manual save file by pressing the Option button. This is the right button equivalent to the Start button on the PS3.
It also serves as the Pause button and gives you the opportunity to make manual saves at most points in the game. The Prologue, though, is excluded and you cannot save if you’re in the middle of a confrontation.
Study the two guards’ movements. G1 has a longer route. G2 has a short route. He will walk a few paces, turn and peer into the shadows, and then walk back. We will be doing several things but only one of them is tricky. There are many ways you can tackle this area. It’s best to decide how you’re going to tackle the one tricky item, the collectible shown on the figure with the red Roman numeral I.
The suggested approach in the figure has you making a quick counterclockwise loop in the main Traitorsgate area and then going into the back alley for a couple of items before proceeding to the principal Chapter area. You could easily go to the back area first using an overhead walkway and getting good situational awareness of Traitorsgate. Bear in mind that the area North of Item 7 is the second point of no return. If you opt to do the back alley first, you can reenter the main Traitorsgate area by climbing from the back alley into a dark corner behind guard G2.
You are free to attack Traitorsgate as you see fit. There are many elevated areas and dark corners. I have shown a few but not all of the climbing points. It is worth noting that only loot counts toward the thieving challenge—these are the items in the orange Arabic numerals. Loot and collectibles (the items depicted by red Roman numerals) count towards the trophy we are trying to get. Documents, arrows, food, and other items depicted by yellow lower case letters may be useful to you but they do not count towards the trophy we are trying to get or the thieving challenge. The same is true of the guards that can be pickpocketed. Coins, documents, and items they might have do not count towards the trophy nor the thieving challenge.
Tip--Pickpocketing Loop: Immediately following the conclusion of Chapter 1, the walkthrough will present you with a pickpocketing loop in the City. The loop takes about three minutes to complete. You pickpocket five people each of whom carry 12G. Thus, a quick three minute expedition will net you 60G and give you credit for five pickpockets. The loop will also hone your skills so pickpocketing will be second nature. Because of this, although I show pickpocketing opportunities, if you are understandably not yet comfortable with pickpocketing, leave serious attempts until after you have used the Pickpocketing Loop to practice and hone your skills. None of the pickpocketing opportunities in Chapter 1 are as lucrative as the people we will pickpocket during the loop.
The approach suggested in the figure below is to drop down to the yard level in the darkened recess to the South. Initially, you will use the light blue arrows as your guide. G1’s movements are very predictable. It is easy to walk behind him or cross the courtyard when he’s not looking. Remember that on Master (Custom) difficulty guards have very good peripheral vision:
Tip: When using stealth, it is best to use the crouching position. This applies to pickpocketing as well.
If you want to practice pickpocketing, G1 has a document and a purse with 7G. You can pickpocket one at a time and return to your dark vantage point between attempts or you can do both at once. Once you are ready, cross the courtyard in order to more easily enter the room in the center of the figure.
The room is vacant and unlocked. If you want to practice good discipline, press and hold the interact button to peek through the keyhole. However, you have to do so expeditiously before the guard turns around and sees you. Once inside, close the door so that you can move around safely. There’s a coin purse with 12G in it on the sofa (loot 4 of 60). In the corner on a small round table, you’ll find a water arrow. It is not loot but is very useful in its own right.
When you are finished, make a new manual save. Then, peek through the keyhole so you can exit just after G1 passes. You should be able to sneak into the dark recess North of G2 when he walks away from you. Pick up the two coins (loot 5 & 6 of 60). Note how he walks. He will pace for a few steps and then turn as if looking directly at you. He, of course cannot see you because of the dark. It is at the moment he turns that we will be making our move to get the collectible. First, though, we must get into position. When he walks in the opposite direction of the dark Southwest corner, quickly swoop there by pressing the action button.
Now comes the tricky part. You will be swooping from the Southwestern corner to the collectible I, picking it up, and swooping to the dark recess North of the courtyard where you first descended. You’ll want to time it so that G1 is walking away from you and G2 is in the process of turning to look at the dark corner North of him. Since G1 has a long walk and G2 a short one, key on G2 at the time when G1 begins to walk away from you.
Make a new manual save. If you just have a couple of hours of game play under your belt, you most likely will not be precise with your moves. You have plenty of time to make the swoops. Success will depend on how quickly you are able to identify the collectible and press the interact button to pick it up. Just use patience. The manual save is there for you in case your first attempt(s) end in your being detected. The game will automatically prompt you to load a save file and you will select the manual save rather than the checkpoint save. The fruits of your patience will be the Amethyst Circle (Collectible 1 of 4 for the Chapter).
If you are having difficulty getting the collectible with stealth, you can distract the guards instead. Again, choose the time when G2 is getting ready to turn and look in the dark corner and G1 has just started to walk away from you. Toss your throwable so neither guard will look in your direction. A good spot is in where coins 5 and 6 were. Depending on G1’s location, he may not notice the distraction. If he does, like G2, he will not be looking at the collectible. When you pick up the collectible, there’s a throwable right next to it that you can pick up to replenish the one you tossed. I didn’t mention it earlier because you can only carry one and you should still have the throwable from the prologue.
Once you're safely back in the North recess where you started, you can relax and get ready for your exit from Traitorsgate. Make a manual save so your hard work to get the collectible is preserved. If you had to use a distraction, wait until the guards’ suspicions subside. Follow the green arrows North into the back alley climbing over the obstacle. Turn right, climb up, and then drop down into an enclave where you’ll find a valuable water arrow. When you climb back out, move right so that you’ll end up on an elevated platform. Follow it first West and then North around the building. Pick up the final piece of loot for this area, a gear (loot 7 of 60).
It’s best to ignore G3. The 3G in his purse is not worth pickpocketing. We cannot use the broadhead arrow on the table. We don’t have to use the ladder North of G3 to exit because there’s a climbable wall just North of the gear we just picked up. Since we’ll soon be going through another point of no return, you might want to check your progress in the journal by pressing up on the D pad. It should show that you have seven items of common loot and one collectible.
Follow the objective marker and climb the wall. You will see a pen in plain sight—pick it up (loot 8 of 60). There’s a locked gate. Pick the lock and open it. After entering, close the gate to reveal a Candlestick behind it (loot 9 of 60). You can also pick up some food.
Continue West. The way looks blocked but the game will prompt you to use the interact button. Do so, knowing that you are crossing another point of no return. When you emerge, from your elevated vantage point, you’ll get a cut scene. You see three guards in the court yard. Two walk together and the third has a short route in the Northern sector. In spite of initial impressions, this is a very easy area. We don’t have to do anything fancy near the guards. We’ll be following the blue areas in the figure. The items in the Southeast corner are the ones we picked up before moving the obstacles:
Keep your eye on guards G1 and G2 and move when they are moving away from you. It is fairly easy to remain out of sight especially with the crates you can use for concealment. It would be prudent, as always, to make a manual save before you venture out.
There’s a locked box on a barrel near the corner of a structure. Pick the lock and take the arrow(s). Note that you might find the contents of these arrow boxes may not always correspond to this walkthrough. The contents vary according to difficulty. It is of no consequence because we make very little use of arrows and the walkthrough will ensure you have the required arrow when the occasion demands it.
Just Northwest of the barrel with the locked box containing the arrow(s) there is a crate with a single gold coin on it. The inset image in the figure shows how the coin is visible on the edge of the crate. If you do not easily see it, you are probably the victim of a game glitch where this item infrequently does not appear. If this is the case, you will not be able to get the 60 common loot items for the trophy. You will have to get the trophy during your Rogue playthrough.
It is partly because of this glitch that the walkthrough has you go for the all loot and collectibles in one chapter trophy. We have a backup plan in case the glitch victimizes us on one of the playthrough. Hopefully, the glitch does not affect you and you obtain the gold coin (loot 10 of 60).
Now, move into the dark passage East of you. This area is completely safe. There is a gold coin fairly visible and a second one in a bird’s nest on a high ledge in the Southeast corner (loot 11 & 12 of 60). You have to climb on the low roof opposite the ledge and take a running jump to the ledge. If you, understandably, have not yet mastered the controls, you might have to try more than once because it’s a long jump. Later, after you have internalized the controls, you will think nothing of a jump of this type but, for now, you might need a little practice. There is also a broadhead arrow in the customary arrow box. You have to climb up a crate to get it.
Move south towards some stairs leading down into an underpass. I have merged the street level map and the underpass map. Your in-game map will look different. You follow the underpass until you find a closed door. Open it, enter, and close the door behind you. You’ll find some food and a document that you can read in your journal. It’s entitled, “Clocktower Stops Again,” When you closed the door behind you, you will have revealed a coin purse (loot 13 of 60).
After gathering the three items here crouch down and enter the crawlspace exit to the room. Follow it a short ways and you’ll be forced to climb to return to ground level. Continue first West and then North until you reach a locked iron gate. You’ll see a regular locked door immediately to your right. This is the door to the cellar into the jeweler’s house. We will be coming back here just after we pick up the last item of loot.
Pick the Iron Gate’s lock. Go through it and turn right (East). Before the passageway exits into the courtyard, you’ll see a table with a knife on it (loot 14 of 60). We won’t bother with the guard (G3) in the courtyard. We could pickpocket his two purses but it’s not worth the aggravation. Instead return to the door next to the iron gate. Pick the lock and slowly enter the cellar. There’s a cabinet for a checkpoint save just to your left. Enter it. You can look through the slats to get a lay of the land:
This is relatively simple and straightforward. The jeweler moves between his desk and a work table. He is not very alert to your movements. Just stay behind him as much as possible. Work the room incrementally, saving by entering the cabinet after every step.
Tip: Don’t forget to move about while crouching for utmost silence.
You can pick up a fire arrow just to your right. It’s in the usual arrow box on a crate. Then turn your attention to the desk. On the corner of the desk, you pick up a letter. Read it in your journal. It gives the combination to the safe—739. Get in the habit of checking all drawers. We’ll have quite a few to go through upstairs. Don’t try to get everything all at once. Be mindful of the Jewelers movement. The desk has two items of loot—a letter opener in a drawer and an ink bottle on the desk (loot 15 & 16 of 60).
Now that you know the safe combination, go to the picture in the Southwest corner. This is just like the prologue. Feel around until the controller vibrates and then press the trigger to lift the picture revealing the safe behind it.
There’s a candle right next to the picture and the safe. You can safely put it out if you wish. You can then proceed in darkness. I prefer to ghost it and take it in steps. Reveal the picture first, unlock the safe second (combination 7-3-9), pilfer the safe’s content third. There is no tangible benefit in getting pure ghost but the game considers it the most prestigious play style. If you’re not into prestige but practicality, you can douse the candle. You will still get ‘Ghost’ as your overall play style but it will not be a 100% Ghost—the pie chart will include an opportunist slice. Do not, however, douse the lights on the work bench or the desk. No matter how surreptitious you think you are, at this level of difficultly, the Jeweler will always become suspicious and rush upstairs to give warning.
Whether you play ghost or opportunist (by dousing the light), your reward is a collectible, the Lyegrove’s Jeweled Mask (Collectible 2 of 4 for the Chapter). The other three items of loot are the cup, bracelet, and pile of coins on the work bench (loot 17, 18, and 19 of 60). Finally, you might want to pick pocket the jeweler. His two purses hold a not insignificant 27G between them. This, however, is purely optional.
Before heading upstairs, you might want to check your stats and verify that you have two of the four chapter collectibles and 19 of the 60 items of common loot. The items in the cellar can be picked up in any order. You don’t even need the letter because you have the safe combination from the walkthrough. When you’re ready, go up the stairs. At the top of the stairs, immediately to your left is a cabinet. Enter it to make a checkpoint save.
The first floor of the Jeweler’s shop has half the loot and collectibles in the chapter. Make sure you open all the drawers and cupboards to find it all. The outer hallway where you entered the cabinet is safe. Collect the four items there: Ink bottle, two candlesticks, and a letter opener (loot 20, 21,22, & 23 of 60). After that, climb on top of the cabinet where you made the checkpoint save.
From the top of the cabinet, you can crawl on the rafters. There’s one item of loot up here—an ink bottle in the Southwest sector (loot 24 of 60). This is your opportunity to get a good lay of the land. There are two guards. One is asleep. The other walks in a North-South route in the front of the store. Take particular note of his pattern. He is the guard we will be avoiding. Because of the predictability of his patrol pattern, it is fairly easy.
When you have a good understanding of the layout of the shop, exit the way you came in and climb down from the cabinet. Enter it to make another checkpoint save.
You know from your reconnaissance from the rafters that, in addition to the safe hallway you are in now, that there are two rooms. To the Southwest, there is a smaller room with a guard sleeping on a chair. The Eastern half of the floor is the main shop. It is the largest room on the floor. There is an alert guard who patrols but he walks in a very predictable manner:
Remember, throughout, to keep the patrolling guard’s movements in mind. We will use his predictability to pick up every single item. It is best not to try to do too much at a time. Take what you can while his back is turned or while he’s walking away from you. If you piece-meal the list of items, every item on the list can be easily obtained without alerting the guard.
With that in mind, we will start with the Southwest room. It’s the one with the sleeping guard. It is possible to wake him by being ‘unstealthy’ near him so try to give him as wide a berth as possible—only approaching the minimum distance required to obtain the items.
Tip: Remember to stay crouched unless you have to stand up.
As you enter, you can get a cup, gold coin, and letter opener that are fairly obvious (loot 25,26, and 27 of 60). Next, we have to tackle the safe that’s on the South wall. Make a manual save or use the cabinet to make a checkpoint save or both. The guard should not wake up even if you miss a tumbler but it’s better to be safe than sorry. The safe has more tumblers than the previous ones you’ve tried. That only means that you have to concentrate a little longer using the same technique you’ve used before. Each tumbler, in and of itself, is no more difficult than what you’ve done before.
You’ll find a pretty decent pile of coins in the safe (loot 28 of 60) and the Sootback Bracelet (collectible 3 of 4 for the chapter). It doesn’t matter in this case but it’s good practice to shut the safe door after you’re through. Finish the room by picking up the candlestick in the cupboard on the East wall and the pile of coins and inkbottle on the North side of the room (loot 29,30, and 31 of 60). Make a checkpoint save in one of the two closets. Then, in the Southwest room, position yourself against the East wall just North of the doorway. Use the ‘peek’ technique to observe the guard G2.
Notice that when the guard reaches his Southern-most position, he will pause for a while and then turn to his left (away from you) and walk to the North end of the room. Once you’ve grasped his pattern, take two trips to get earrings, bracelet, ring and brooch (loot 32, 33, 34, and 35 of 60).
Make another save and reassume your position where you can peek at the guard. We’ll be working the desk next. It will probably take three trips to check the drawers, unlock the cash register, and pilfer the coins from the cash register. First, get the coin from the desk and a pile of coins from one of the desk drawers (loot 36 and 37 of 60). On a separate trip, pick the lock on the cash register. Be careful that you do not miss a tumbler because the guard will hear. The good news is that you can use the desk as concealment while the guard is walking North. You must, however, be gone before he starts walking South because he will walk on your side of the desk.
On your third trip, open the cash register drawer after having picked the lock the previous trip. Take the pile of coins (loot 38 of 60), shut the cash register drawer, and return to your vantage point. Make a manual save. This time, we’re going to open the display case just North of the Cash Register.
When the guard begins to walk North, follow behind him using the desk for concealment. Make sure you stay out of the guard’s peripheral vision. When you get to the display case, open it, remove the earrings and necklace (loot 39 and 40 of 60), close the display case, and return to your hiding place.
Note: The items in the very east of the shop may not be readily apparent. They are in window display cases and you’re accessing them from back panels or drawers. As soon as you get close, you will get a prompt to use the interact button to open the panel or drawer. In one case, also, there is a lock to unlock.
Make another manual save prior to going after the four objects in the Southeast corner. These you will get right after the guard stop, pauses, and turns to begin his walk back. Unless you have become proficient, you will want to get them in two trips. First, go after the brooch and necklace and on your next trip go after the bracelet and necklace in the window display case (loot 41, 42, 43, and 44 of 60). If you want to, you can pickpocket the guard. You should have his routine down pat so it’s an easy 7G.
We’ll go to a different vantage point for the remaining items. Return to the safe hall and make a checkpoint save in the closet. We will be using the door in the Northeast corner of the hallway. Peek through the keyhole and open it after the guard has walked by. The guard will not notice the door has been opened.
First, go after the ring and bracelet in the display case. It’s conveniently close. As soon as the guard passes by walking South, open the display case, remove the ring and the bracelet (loot 45 and 46 of 60), and shut the display case. Return to your vantage point.
On a second trip, go after the brooch and necklace (loot 47 and 48 of 60). We have two window display cases left. One of them is locked. First, get the bracelet and earrings (loot 49 and 50 of 60). Make a manual save. Time your trip for when the guard just passes you. For the first trip, concentrate on picking the lock. Make sure you do not miss a tumbler. That will alert a guard. If you can’t get it quickly, press the cancel button to back out. Make a mental note of what you know. The tumblers will always unlock at the same place. This will apply even if you get detected and have to load your most recent save file.
Once you pick the lock, do not open the display case. Retire to your hiding place and compose yourself. When the guard passes, open the display case, take out the Jeweled Mask (Collectible 4 of 4 for the chapter), and close the display case. Go back to the closet and make a checkpoint save. You should pop two trophies. This particular item has a trophy all its own. It’s a replica of the real mask that Lyegrove made. Unlike other collectibles, it gives you gold—a much appreciated 125G. Also, the four collectibles we got in this chapter added to the one we had to get in the Prologue to advance the story give us a total of five collectibles and the associated trophy:
The last ten items of loot are on the second floor. Go upstairs quietly remembering to crouch. There is a bird in the hall that runs the length of the second floor from South to North. It is in the middle of the hall on the left hand side. There is a sleeping guard in the first room to the right. Pick up the food—it doesn’t count as loot—and the two cups (loot 51 and 52 of 60). In the first room to the left, pick up the pile of coins and the letter opener (loot 53 and 54 of 60).
The Jeweler’s wife sits in the second room on the left. She is very unobservant and you can pick up the cup right next to her and the pile of coins across from her (loot 55 and 56 of 60). Once you have them, quietly back out the way you came and make your way to the second room on the right. If you move slowly, you will not disturb the bird. If you are in doubt, use the technique where you tap the left stick in the direction you want to go while crouching.
There is a document, “Who Watches the Watch Hounds,” that you can read by opening your journal (d-pad up). For loot, you can pick up earrings and a cup (loot 57 and 58 of 60). In the next room to the right (moving quietly so as not to disturb the caged bird), you can get a hairbrush (loot 59 of 60). In the opposite room, you’ve got the final piece of loot, a cup (loot 60 of 60).
You will be leaving by the North Window. This does not return you to Stonecutter’s market. It is a point of no return. You might want to check player progress in the journal just to make sure you have all 60 loot items and all four collectibles for the chapter. If so, you’re in great shape. Approach the window and open it. You will drop into Stonemarket - Blackfurrow Alcove. There’s a newspaper with an article called, “Lockdown!” that you can read in the journal.
Now, exit through the window at the end of the alley. You find yourself in a completely safe town house. Follow the objective marker North and open the door while crouching. You emerge in Blackfurrow proper. There are two guards on the other side of a crate that provides you with concealment. Turn left. There’s a cabinet at the first corner where you can make a checkpoint save.
Continue on. Stay in the shadows. You will see two guards bantering with a woman. Wait for the conversation to end. When the guards move on, follow them carefully. There are flashes of lightning that could reveal you if you get too close. Before long, you’ll see a place on the left where you can use your claw tool to climb a thick pipe to elevation. Use the elevated walkway and follow the objective marker to the climbing marks on the wall. Use the claw tool to climb the North wall ending the chapter.
Report card time! The game provides you with a Chapter recap or mission summary. Not only did we do well, but we will acquire three trophies. Thanks to our difficulty modifier, we could not help but finish the chapter without alerting anyone. We also stole all loot and collectibles in the chapter. Finally, we get a trophy for doing the chapter itself:
Preparations for Chapter 2
We should not have taken any damage. We’re going for a trophy where we do not take any damage for three chapters in a row:
Cleared 2 of 3 consecutive chapters without taking any damage
In the Clock Tower hideout, there are chests for collectibles. They mean little during this playthrough because we will gather collectibles in the easy, Rogue playthrough. Of more interest, is a chest for inventory. Garett can deposit and withdraw items. Upstairs, a cut scene ensues and Garrett gets information that he needs to see Basso in a tavern, The Crippled Burrick.
Before we head out to meet with Basso, and start chapter 2; we need to use this respite to regroup. During our easy Rogue playthrough, we’ll be doing quite a bit in terms of side quests between chapters. However, this playthrough is pretty much a pure story playthrough where we’ll just be doing the chapters.
Nevertheless, we’re about to pick up the pace. From here on out, we’ll be doing close to a speed run. We’ll be clearing each chapter very directly taking advantage of numerous short cuts. We will ignore all loot except the loot along our path.
Note: Because we’ll be playing this playthrough so quickly, there’s a high probability that we will finish in less than 15 hours thus missing a trophy for finishing the game in over 15 hours. So, when you take a break, do not log off. Leave Garrett in a safe place such as inside a cabinet or his Clock Tower hideout. When you get back to the game, hopefully hours later, and leave the cabinet or Clock Tower, the game will create a checkpoint save and credit the time you were away towards game play. Take as long as you want. This is the reverse of a speed run. The trophy requires you to take more than 15 hours to finish the game. There is no point in trying to cut it short. The Rogue playthrough will take us more than 15 hours without special effort. However, there is no need to finish the game so this short Custom playthrough is our only opportunity to get this trophy.
We’re going to do a little exercise to help us move purposefully near adversaries in stealth mode. I call it the Pickpocket loop. We will start from our hideout in the Clock Tower and run a clockwise loop back to the Clock Tower. Along the way, we will pickpocket four guards and one civilian. Each pocket picked will net us 12G. The loop takes a little over three minutes. Our main objective is to practice movement but the exercise will help us get the funds we’ll need for our second tool later on—the wire cutter to disarm traps. Also, there’s a trophy for picking 100 pockets in a game and this will help your count. In summary, our main goal is to learn to move decisively but stealthily. We have three additional objectives:
- Start learning the city near Garrett’s hideout
- Steal 60G in minutes
- Advance the pickpocket counter towards a trophy
There’s no need to overdo it. Once you feel that you’ve got the loop down pat, you’ve got the necessary control to finish the game. In other words, do the loop while it’s challenging. Once it becomes boring, it’s time to move on. To illustrate the loop, both video and map are provided. The map is in two sections. The section on the left depicts the beginning of the loop when Garrett is above street level. The section on the right depicts the second part of the loop after Garrett descends to street level. As is to be expected, all five picked pockets occur at street level. Because the city can get quite complicated, I will include street and neighborhood names in the maps. Your in-game map will not show these but it will show the name of your location. The intent is to assist you in keeping your bearings at all times:
As shown on the left hand side of the map, Garret leaves the Clock Tower and heads South. He takes the first left to head East. Right after this left turn, he has to make an adjustment to his left front to stay on the walkway. At the end of the walkway, he has to crouch down in order to make a right hand turn on another walkway running South. At the very end of this walkway, Garrett vaults the railing landing on a sloping roof and slides to street level as indicated by the red dot.
Turning your attention to the right hand side of the map, Garrett is now at street level as indicated by the red dot. He crosses the street moving West into an enclave. At the West side of the enclave, he climbs on a crate and then over the railing. He makes a turn moving right and crouches near a crate. Once you learn to move quickly and smoothly, you’ll see two guards moving East to West on the street just to your South. The guards will not see you from that distance. We crouched to prepare ourselves for the first pickpocket. If you do not see the guards, you’re slightly behind schedule but you have quite a few seconds of slack here so, unless you were very slow, there should be nothing of concern.
There will be a civilian standing against the wall Northwest of the crate you are crouching behind. He will stand straight and start to walk. He will look straight at you. Like most civilian activity, this is of no concern. The civilian is not even curious much less suspicious. Move behind him and pickpocket him. He is much more insensitive than the guards. Unless you really disturb him, he will remain oblivious of what you are doing. You must, however, pickpocket him before he moves more than a few steps away from your crouched position. There is another civilian (with no purse) further North. He will become suspicious if he sees what you are doing.
Reminder: Crouch while pickpocketing. You are very susceptible to detection when not crouching.
After you pickpocket the civilian, go to the South end of the alley and crouch against the West wall. In the beginning, you may want to make a manual save here. Peeking (you actually don’t have to peek if you’re making good time but can step out and look as you see in the video), you see the two guards standing West of you. After a while, they begin to move towards you. Move back in your crouching position and wait concealed by the West wall.
A note on timing: This is where you have some slack. If you execute perfectly, you’ll have a few seconds before the guards even start to move much less get close to your position. This means, before you have become proficient moving Garrett, that you can afford some inefficiency in your movement. The key is to get to the crouching position before the guards come to the intersection of your street and theirs.
Don’t be too hasty. The guards are quite alert at Master custom difficulty. If you approach too diagonally, the guards will sense this and detect you. You will want them to be a couple of steps East of you and try to approach them straight from behind. You can pickpocket them in any sequence. I usually find it easier to pickpocket the one on the left first.
Our goal is to pickpocket them quickly and then go to the North end of the street you just came from. You will then be just in time to see two guards just below you. If you don’t do it quickly, you will be too far behind the guards to catch up. This is not a big deal. We will hide and get them on the return trip. However, it will be an indication that you are still developing your proficiency.
If executed promptly, you will drop down behind the two guards. Make sure you are crouched because they will detect you if you are not. You have a lot of time to pickpocket them. You can do one or both quickly while they’re both still climbing the stairs or you can do the second guard or both while they are walking their long route North towards the Clocktower.
Before the two guards stop, duck into the enclave to your left. It is on the West end of a street going East into the plaza. Wait for them to stop, turn around, and pass you going South. Then, go to the point where they stopped. There’s a climbing place against the wall. Climb up, scoot to your right, climb over the railing, and turn left to go back into your hideout.
Going into your hideout creates a checkpoint save. So does coming out of it. Whenever you come out of the hideout, everything is reset--purses are full and people's locations and movements start from scratch. So you are in perfect position to keep repeating the loop until you are satisfied that you have internalized Garrett’s movements and can move around and look without thinking about it.
Incidentally, if you missed pickpocketing one or both of the last two guards, just wait in the hiding place for them to turn around and walk back. Pop out behind them and make up for what you missed. Going back into the Clocktower resets everything so you can keep trying until you have mastered Garrett.
If you find the exercise tedious, be comforted that you are earning cash more quickly than you would by picking up loot and you are driving your pickpocket count up for a trophy. In fact, if you do the loop for about an hour or so, you will be able to unlock the following trophy:
As I said earlier, there's no pressure to get the trophy this early. During our easy Rogue playthrough, we'll have many more opportunities to pick pockets. Nevertheless, this trophy has a TT ratio of well over 2. In order to assure you that this will not be problematic, I provide you with the pickpocket loop to augment pockets that you will pick during the course of the game.
Once you’ve mastered or gotten tired of the pickpocket loop, we will do one more short exercise. It is important that we have confidence in our ability to pick the lock on a door or safe without missing a tumbler. There’s a safe door to practice on just after we drop down to street level in the pickpocket loop. On the street level map, just to the Northwest of the red dot is a lock icon at the bottom of a staircase. Go there. This location is completely safe. Two guards will patrol above. In fact, they are the first pair you pickpocket during the pickpocket loop. However, they cannot see you and are too far away to hear you.
Before you pick the lock, make a manual save. There are three tumblers. Get a feel for where the trigger points are. Try to set the first two tumblers and see where the third tumbler is set but back out before you complete the lock pick. Your goal is to get comfortable with setting the tumblers and never missing. At the end of an encounter with a major boss in chapter 7, we will have to pick a five tumbler lock. If we miss a tumbler, the boss will detect us and we will have to start the encounter from the beginning. So, we’d like to start chapter 2 with some basic lock picking skills.
Once you have a feel for the tumblers, try to pick the lock quickly and precisely. If you do not unlock the Quickly Pick a Lucky Lock trophy, load your manual save and try again. You may have already got the trophy during Chapter 1—the jeweler’s cellar door is an easy lock in a safe area and you may have got it there, for example. If not, continue practicing here. Unlocking the trophy indicates you have acquired the fundamentals required to ensure your success in playing the game:
You can return to the Clock Tower hideout by retracing your steps or proceeding onwards as you would had you been playing the loop. Bear in mind that time has passed so the locations of the guards will not be predictable as they were when we were setting the pace. Returning to the Clock Tower hideout creates a check point save. We are now ready to pick up the pace. We will now follow the story in a streamlined manner with no further side quests or diversions.
Chapter 2: Dust to Dust
The chapter 2 mission becomes available after first meeting with Basso and then the Gypsy Queen.
Follow the objective marker and go to the Crippled Burrick Tavern to meet with Basso. After meeting with him, you have a new objective to meet with the Gypsy Queen. Proceed towards the far door of the tavern (opposite the one you used to enter) and stop to talk to the merchant. You may buy items from him--rope arrows are very useful. The important thing, though, is to buy the wrench. We will need it during Chapter 2. Once you have concluded your business with the merchant, exit the tavern's far door and follow the objective marker to the Gypsy Queen.
After a cut scene, you will obtain a new objective that will kick off the mission. Chapter 2 formally starts when you pass through the gate in the Stonemarket Graveyard. It takes about 15 minutes to complete including the meeting with the Gypsy Queen.
Note: In our easy, Rogue playthrough we will become very familiar with the city. For now, because we are using a speed run mentality, we will only be using the city as a hub from which to get to the chapter mission locations. Don't worry about exploring the city at this time. Directions to get to each chapter location will be shown. Below, starting from the Clock Tower, are maps that depict how to get to the Crippled Burrick Tavern, the Gypsy Queen, and the Stonemarket Graveyard Gate that must be used to initiate Chapter 2:
When you pass through the Stonemarket Graveyard Gate, Chapter 2 begins with a cut scene. If you had a manual save before chapter 2, it will disappear. It is recommended that you make a new manual save as soon as possible and save frequently. The enemies, here, are more perceptive than in Chapter 1. The game will make periodic auto-saves so you are not relying, entirely, on your manual saves. They are for convenience and act as a second safety net. The way we have set up the custom difficulty no achievement is at risk here. If you are detected, you revert to your most recent save or you can load an older one. You have the choice between the game's auto save and your manual save. So, detection is just an inconvenience.
We no longer need loot. We will come across a box with four blunt arrows that you will find useful later on in the game. There is a ring that must be picked up as a chapter mission item. Everything else is purely optional. We want to have 1,000 gold by the end of Chapter 3 but we will not need to go out of our way to get it. Our main objective is to make it through the chapter missions as efficiently as possible. You are free to do extra stuff--the purpose of the game is to have fun so indulge your curiosity. Note that we are playing on a high difficulty level so the risk of detection is high. On our easy Rogue playthrough, you will find it much easier to roam about if you are so inclined. If you take the direct route described here and depicted on the maps, Chapter 2 takes about 10 minutes to get through.
After the cut scene reach out to the rope in front of you and slide down. Immediately cross the area and climb the ladder on the other side. At the top, crouch down. Stay in the shadows wherever possible and move rapidly on the left side when you reach a wall, turn right, and follow the wall to a gate. Pick the lock. It has three tumblers. You should pick it quickly and without misstep. Enemies will often hear a missed attempt. If you practiced lock picking in the city, that practice will come in value. The reason you want to pick it quickly is because a guard will path near the gate if you linger too long. Open the gate, go through it, and close it behind you. Closing it behind you is not absolutely necessary because we are going to leave the new section immediately. However, it is of value to develop good habits early. Closing the gate prevents any enemy in the section you just left from seeing you in the new section.
Note: There is loot in the area--a coin purse to your right and a locked box (on top of a barrel) you can pick open to get a choke arrow. You may get them if you want but then you have to be mindful of the two guards in this section. They are initially conversing and then split up and path. There is plenty of concealment. You can 'peek' out to check that they are facing away from you and/or walking away from your position.
Once you go through the gate whose lock you picked and close it behind you, you are safe. There's an item of loot on the ground in the corner--pick it up--and climb up at the spot just to the left of where you picked up the loot. The area you enter (Old Foundry Dust Yard) is completely safe with no enemies. Cross it following the objective marker. Garrett sees Erin's face in a brief flash after which he gets the objective to find a way into the foundry. There's a poppy on the ground. It glows and is easy to spot. Pick it up. Garrett cannot use it with our customization because he can't use focus. However, poppies can be sold for a good chunk of change.
Against the far wall is a pipe with a blue tinge indicating it is climbable. Climb it and move left when you can't climb higher. There are a couple of places where Garrett must take a short jump to the left. This is basic movement and not maneuvers that require precision or timing. Garrett cannot fall off. At the end of this short climbing section, Garrett enters a vent. Proceed through the vent. Shortly after entering, turn right at the first opportunity and follow the vent to the end where Garrett can climb up. He hears a guard speaking to himself. Look down and check on the guard. As soon as the guard starts walking up the stairs, drop down, and go down two flights of steps. The guard should not see you since he is going up the stairs and you are going down.
After going down two flights of steps, hop over the short wall to the left of the manikin onto a short beam. Turn to your left and hop from one short beam to the next. Do not drop down to the floor. After the third short beam you hop to a landing. Exercise a little caution because there may be a crossbow archer pathing on the landing. If you do not see him, hop to the landing and crouch in the dark corner to your front left. If you do not see the archer, crouch and proceed cautiously forward. If you see the archer back up into the dark corner where you started. When you are crouched down in the dark corner, the archer cannot see you. The archer's path has him turn around before he gets to the dark corner. When he turns around and walks away, walk crouching behind him. After getting to a corner and turning right, proceed just a little further and take your first left. You will enter a dark safe area.
Note: If you are very quick and precise, you can reach your destination before the archer moves. You will see him standing at his post just past the point where you turn left into the dark area.
Follow the path in the dark area a short distance. You will see a hook in front of you. Hop onto the hook. After a short delay, it will start to move. It will pause for a moment. After it resumes, you will see a guard and you will receive a prompt to drop down. Do so. Swoop on the right hand side and turn left. The left hand side appears safer but there is broken glass that will alert the guard unless you move very slowly by nudging the left stick. There will be a door pick the lock. Go through the door and go straight. You will see a grate. Since you bought the wrench, there will be a prompt to unscrew. Do so and enter the vent.
Before dropping down, take a look to your front right. You'll see an opening. That is where you'll go but it will be dark so it's best to orient yourself before dropping into the darkness. Drop down, turn right and enter the small passageway. When you exit, turn right again and you will see a table with two candlesticks on it. Take the candlesticks but, more importantly, open the box next to the candlesticks to get three blunt arrows, a rope arrow, and a broadhead arrow. You can't use the broadhead arrow but you can sell it. The blunt arrows and the rope arrow will be very useful. Jump on the box to the right of the table, unscrew the grate, and then go through it. You'll find yourself once more under the rail with the hooks that transports the dead bodies.
Proceed along the corridor. You'll see a light. You can snuff it out but that will interfere with our ghost mode. It won't affect any achievements but it will result in opportunistic play which is good but the game does not consider it as good as ghost play. Just past the light, turn left, and head towards the end. At the end, turn to face left, and climb up to a higher area. You will be at the level of the rail with the hooks. Move the reticle on a hook and wait for the square prompt to appear indicating you can grab it. You will move above the guards who will not detect you. You will be on the hook for a while as it moves forward, stopping momentarily ever so often. As soon as you see a guard on your level, drop down, crouch, and swoop in the direction you had been moving.
Your movement will be interrupted by a cut scene. At the end of the scene, you will get a new objective--"Steal the ring from the General." Proceed forward, turn left, and climb to the upper level. You will be in the Furnace Hall. The door to the furnace will open and close. When open, it will light the area. If you look at the objective marker, you'll see that you have to cross the room. You'll do so by crouching, waiting for the furnace door to close and then swooping with the desks to shield you from view. You go, not to the objective marker but the blue climbable section just to the right of the objective marker. Climb up, enter the vent, and follow the passage. You'll take a left and emerge into the supervisor's office. You'll get a new objective to open the strong box. Until you do so, the room is safe so you can loot the seal and the food. You can't use the food but you can sell it.
Select the strong box. By using the D pad, you can select a section to turn and turn it in accordance with the on-screen prompts. Change the diagram on the puzzle box so that it looks like the "Strongbox puzzle solution" in the below screenshot (bottom right quadrant):
Caution: The strongbox opens and reveals gold and a ring. Take the gold first. The ring is a mission item and will trigger a cut scene and the transition to the next section.
The cut scene does not count against your play style. As soon as it is over turn to your right and pick the door lock. It is a four tumbler lock. Unfortunately, it cannot be picked before the cut scene so you must do it expeditiously. As soon as you exit crouch and swoop hugging the wall to your left. At the corner, keep hugging the wall and swoop into the shadows in the direction of the objective marker. There are guards who are more alert than normal following the events of the cut scene. So, you can't take a direct route. There are many ways of getting to the objective marker. I recommend going first to a depressed area with stairs. There, you can make a manual save and collect yourself. You may be out of breath from swooping. From there, you can climb up, safely walk behind a guard, and climb up the blue climbable area at the objective marker. The guard that you may have been walking behind will stop to talk to another guard just past the objective marker. They will not notice you if you crouch down, hug the wall to your right, and press LT to climb up the blue area.
The next section is a safe area. There is a poppy you can pick up to sell to the right of the objective marker. The objective marker is near some blue pipe that can be climbed. Climb it and move up and to your right until you exit. At the exit, you have a choice of going left or right. Going right is further from the guards. As you move to the right on a flimsy roof, it will break, and you will fall down into a room. Immediately exit, crouch down, and swoop hugging the wall to your right. When you reach the end, turn left, and swoop to the door in front of you. You will probably get out of breath but keep swooping. If you execute immediately, you will reach your destination before the guards can detect you. Once you enter the door, you are in a safe area. Go up and exit. That will end the chapter. You'll get your end of chapter stats. You should get 250 Gold for a ghost play style. For finishing the chapter, you will unlock:
We should not have taken any damage for the third time. This will unlock a trophy.
Cleared 3 of 3 consecutive chapters without taking any damage
You find yourself in the lower level of your lair in the Clock Tower. When you go up, a cut scene will occur. A bird gives you a message written on a matchbox. You must meet Basso in the Black Alley.
Meet with Basso in the Black Alley: If you have done the pick pocketing loop, the objective marker is on the far side of the road where you pick pocketed the first two guards. Follow the pick pocketing loop path, but do not pick pocket the civilian or wait for the two guards to appear. Cross the street. The two guards will not have appeared yet. Jump over the low fence and take a few steps to the objective marker. After selecting "Enter the Black Alley," a cut scene will occur. After the cut scene, you will find yourself just outside the entrance to the Black Alley and will have a new mission objective:
Preparations for Chapter 3
The chapter 3 mission becomes available after first meeting with Basso in the Black Alley and completing a follow-on mission objective to go to Erin's quarters. These preliminary activities take between ten to fifteen minutes of game play including cut scenes.
Note: Make sure you have a throwable in your possession. They are plentiful, so if you do not have one, pick one up.
Visit Erin's Hideout in South Quarter: The objective marker for the South Quarter is close to the entrance to the Black Alley. Go there while hugging the wall to your right and staying in the shadows. At the objective marker, you will be prompted to hold square which will cause Garrett to squeeze through some boxes into a new section--Baron's Way South. There are a lot of guards here so make a manual save you can revert to if detected. The easiest way past is to equip a throwable, hug the wall to the left and throw your throwable over the head of the guard to your left. Quickly swoop across the street and head towards the objective marker. You may create some suspicion but you should remain undetected. After selecting the objective marker, you will enter South Quarter - Baron's Way North.
Be mindful of the guards. After a short cut scene stay in the shadows and go in the alley to Garrett's right. Head towards the objective marker. It is across a gap. On the near side of the gap, there are a couple of guards. Garrett can slip by them undetected by taking the path shown in the figure. Needless to say, he should be crouching. Also, when crossing risky areas, be sure to swoop. Cross the gap quickly and head towards the objective marker. It is a window. Open it to enter Skin Market.
Note: Because the guards patrol, you may experience slight differences from the description. Be alert for these and make adjustments as necessary. With the prologue and two chapters under your belt, you should be quite proficient by now.
Proceed directly to the objective marker. This is not a heavily patrolled area and you should not encounter any guards. You will be doing a little climbing but the route is fairly straightforward to the marker. Select the objective marker to enter Hideout - Erin's Mill.
There are no enemies in Erin's Mill. There are traps that can injure Garrett. They can be disarmed. For expediency, though, we will just avoid them.
Proceed to the objective marker. There is a protruding stone as shown in the figure. Press it to open up a hidden passageway below the stone and to the right. Go through the passageway to enter Erin's hideout.
Go straight ahead and climb up. Turn right squeezing through a group of three crates. There is a single large crate directly ahead. Climb on it to avoid a trap on the ground. Orient yourself by identifying some hanging cloths and a barrel on it side just behind them. Go to the barrel, turn right, and then turn around to find a ladder that was not visible when you were on the crate. Climb the ladder to the upper level.
Once on the upper level, turn left and proceed towards some stairs. Before you get to the stairs, turn right as soon as you can but do not proceed. Instead, immediately turn right again to find a climbable area. Climb up it.
At the top turn left. There is a button on a wooden wall. Press it to open up a trap door. Looking down, Garret can see Erin's room. But, when he descends, the scene transforms. Garrett must follow Erin through a surrealistic area. There are no hazards. So, even though the path is not completely obvious, it is not that difficult to follow it listening to Erin. At the end, Garrett must select three pictures. Again, they are not obvious but also not hard to find. When he presses the last picture, he returns to the present. Again, he must select a picture to open up a hiding place to the left of it. The picture is the same one as the last picture in the sequence of three in the surrealistic cut scene. The hiding place is revealed by pressing the portrait's right eye (the one to Garrett's left). Garrett picks up a medallion that had been sequestered in the hiding place.
When Garrett picks up the medallion, he gets a new objective: Leave the Hideout. The exit is a nearby window. Open the window. Proceed forward a bit until you can jump down to the ground. Then, go right towards the objective marker, a gate to South Quarter. Select 'Yes' when prompted if you want to enter that district.
You'll be in South Quarter/Riverside - Eel's End. There are a couple of guards. If you proceed directly to the objective marker, you should not have to take special precautionary measures. Nevertheless, be alert and exercise the good discipline you've been practicing so far.
Immediately, go straight. Jump on a crate and, from it, to the roof in front of it. You may have to wait for a guard patrolling the area. More likely, if you proceed without delay, the guard will be to the right of the structure whose roof you will climb up on and Garrett will be hidden from view. Go towards the objective marker but note that you must activate a lever 14m before the objective marker to lower a drawbridge. More than one path is available. The attached map shows one of them. It is possible that you might have to wait for the second guard who patrols in the vicinity of a staircase near the lever. Once you get to the lever, pull it and cross the lowered drawbridge to the objective marker. Selecting the objective marker formally starts chapter 3.
Chapter 3: Dirty Secrets
Entering the chapter 3 door deposits you in South Quarter/Riverside - Warrens. You have an objective to find the entrance to the brothel. Note that this resets manual saves. Remember to make frequent manual saves to avoid redoing difficult sections.
There are guards to the right. If you proceed immediately, you should be able to pass by before they start moving and become alert. There is a lot of potential exploring to be done and loot to be collected but, in this playthrough, we're going to concentrate on the story objective to the exclusion of everything else. You are welcome to explore on your own. Note that the risk of exposure increases if you do not proceed directly towards the objective. For example, there is a wealthy client who will start to be escorted to the brothel door if you linger in the beginning.
To avoid this additional activity, we will immediately go towards the objective marker staying in the shadowed pathway to the left. Turn right and then left down some stairs as shown on the map. You will come across a grate. Open it with the wrench and enter. Turn right to find some beams. Proceed along the beams turning right at the first crossing and left at the second. Drop down and follow the path to a climbable spot to the front right. After climbing up, drop down on the other side. Go forward and turn left until you reach a big door. Pull the lever to the side of the door to open it. Then, enter:
There is a second door similar to the first but fancier and better lit also with a lever beside it. Pull the lever and enter. There will be guards and NPCs in this area so some care is in order. In this playthrough, we will spend very little time in the brothel proper but head immediately to a secret passage. As soon as the woman NPC in front of you moves to the right, go straight and a little right through some curtains.
There is more than one path to the stairs. The path shown in the map has you circle behind the guard who should be standing near the base of the stairs facing away from you. If you pause for a second or two, the guard will move to your left and you can climb the stairs. There's a bird right at the bottom of the stairs and a bird at the top of the stairs. Avoid swooping because birds are more sensitive than the guards and will detect a swoop.
Though not necessary, there is a closet on the landing just before you reach the top of the stairs. You can enter it to make an optional checkpoint save to supplement the periodic manual changes you have been making. This optional save is of value because there is a guard at the top of the stairs and a bird in a cage just to the right of the guard. The guard is fairly stationary. He will periodically look over the balcony. When he does so, you can safely move behind him and to the right entering the unlocked room immediately to your left. A reminder not to swoop to avoid alerting the bird in the cage to the right of the guard.
Proceed forward and pick the three tumbler lock on the door to the inner office. Go to the corner. Inspect the painting to activate two catches. Enter the hidden passage that opens up. Note that this is a point of no return and it advances the Chapter 3 mission.
Descend the stairs and follow the corridor until you reach a podium. Inspect it. Then look at the closed stone door opposite the podium. There are four vertical symbols on it but the bottom three are illegible. Garrett deduces he must figure out the remaining three symbols. Go back the way you came in and you will see a couple of peepholes in the inner wall--that is, the wall to Garrett's right as he retraces the way he came in. Look through the peepholes. One will show an Erin cut scene. The other is an occupied room in the brothel. When you look around the room, you will get a notification when you spot a symbol. Now, go back towards the podium and continue on. Past the podium on the inner wall (the wall is now to Garrett's left), you will see two more peepholes. Look through them. As before, you will get a notification when you spot the symbol.
When you discover the fourth and final symbol, you are prompted to place the medallion in the podium. Press the interact button when you reach the podium. You must align the four lit symbols on the medallion by using the D pad according to the instructions. You select a ring and rotate it until the symbol is in the twelve o'clock position. When all four symbols are vertically aligned as shown in the figure below, place the medallion in the podium. This causes the stone door to open. Enter it and follow the path to the left until you are blocked by some beams. Use the interact button to move them:
Follow the path. Garrett will have to crouch down to go under an obstacle. There is a barely visible trap that he cannot avoid. He makes a comment about traps. Inspect the wall to the right to discover a brick that can be pressed. Press it to disable the traps. Turn left then right to proceed into the next chamber. There, follow the objective marker by going towards a corridor to Garrett's front and left. Do not enter the corridor. Instead, inspect the wall in the chamber on the right corner of the corridor to find a protruding brick. Press it to disable the next set of traps.
Note: Although there are a couple of tracks, there will be no enemies in the ruins until after you obtain the book. So, you can move around freely until then without being detected or arousing suspicion.
With the traps disabled, go through the corridor to an octagonal room. The northwest window is broken. Go through the broken window to a spiral staircase. Go down a short ways until you see two ropes to your right. Jump on the near rope and slide down to the bottom. Go through an opening in the ruins to get back on the spiral staircase. Note that you could have gone down the staircase on foot but the rope was a faster way down. At the bottom of the spiral staircase, follow the objective marker to a place called the "Scriptorium." Inspect a bookcase in the south by southeast corner of a large room. This opens up a secret passage. Enter the secret passage turn left. At the end, turn right and jump across the gap to the outer balcony of the northwest library tower. This is one of five library towers. The mission objective is in the center tower that is surrounded by four other towers:
Go through the northwest library tower to the outer balcony on the far side. Turn the crank wheel you find there. This will reconfigure a rotating staircase. Go down the staircase you have just rotated. This will take you to the outer balcony of the central tower. Turn left on the balcony and follow it a short distance in a clockwise direction. Ignore the rickety wooden bridge and turn left up the stairway just past the rickety wooden bridge. This takes you to the southeast tower. Enter it, turn left on the inner balcony and drop down to the bottom. Exit to the outer balcony and turn the crank wheel you find there. This will rotate another staircase. When the game zooms in on an odd creature, pay it no heed. It will not interfere with you.
Return inside to the bottom floor of the southeast tower. There is a board angled upward that you can use to vault to the inner balcony above it:
Turn left, exit onto the southeast towers outer balcony and take the stairway down to the central towers outer balcony. You are retracing the steps you took to get to the southeast tower. Go counterclockwise a few steps on the outer balcony of the central tower. Turn right onto the rickety wooden bridge you passed by earlier on your way to the southeast tower. You'll find yourself on the outer balcony of the northeast tower where you'll see a wheel. Turn it. This will rotate a stairway that will allow you to descend from the northeast tower to the outer balcony of the second floor of the central tower. Proceed left in a clockwise direction a short way until you are looking down in a southerly direction to a stairway with a roman numeral II on the landing.
Drop down to the staircase with the roman numeral II landing and climb it until you reach the outer spiral staircase of the southwest tower. Climb it until you can enter a western door. Go through the southwest tower and exit the eastern door. Climb up the stairway with a roman numeral IV on the landing to the top. Leap across the gap to the central tower. This initiates a short animation that shows you landing in front of a podium similar to the one where you used the medallion previously. Note the four symbols - two to either side of the podium. Press the interact button on the podium. Garrett will pull out the medallion. If you have observed the symbols on either side of the podium, they will be lit up on the medallion. You will be required to align the four lit symbols vertically as before and place the medallion in the podium's receptacle:
A secret enclosure will open up and a book will rise up. Take the book. After the ensuing cut scene, grab the rope and climb up. Jump off onto the inner balcony. Exit the door to the outer balcony turn right and then take the wooden bridge to the northwest tower. Turn right on the outer balcony of the northwest tower and then take an immediate left through the doorway and onto the inner balcony. Take a left and then turn right. Grab a rope and slide down to the bottom. Exit by the west window and jump across to the secret passage that you used to get from the scriptorium to the library towers.
Go past the bookcase you used to enter the secret passage. There are now guards in the scriptorium. If you were to look through the peephole, you would see them. Nevertheless, ignore the peephole because you want to get past the guards before they go on patrol and do not want to waste time listening to their conversation. As soon as you turn right at the southeast corner, turn right again. There is a climbable place where you can climb up to the beams above the scriptorium. Cross the beams to the northwest corner. Turn right and climb up through the window to an inner balcony. Turn left, go clockwise, and exit north onto a stone pathway. Proceed quickly on the pathway until you get to a broken stained glass window on your right. Duck into it and crouch where you will not be seen from the stone pathway.
Wait inside the broken window until a guard passes going in the direction from which you came. After he passes continue on in the direction you had been going; that is, opposite the direction of the guard. You will climb some more steps and see another guard. Approach the guard by climbing up behind the guard and crouching right next to the wall to the rear of the guard. Eventually, the guard will move triggered by a new guard descending the stairs towards him. Climb over the wall. Immediately, turn left and climb up. You will be on a small path to the left of the stairway. You can use it to go around the guard descending the stairway without him noticing you. You get back on the stairway and exit left into a chamber at the top.
This is the pure ghost approach. It might have to wait a significant amount of time and/or move around in order to trigger the guard's movement. It is not necessary to finish the chapter pure ghost and it is quite appropriate to be pragmatic rather than go for the style points. When the guard passes your hiding place inside the broken window, climb the stairs until you see the next guard. Instead of waiting for him to move, just approach him slowly to his right. When you get right up to him, swoop past him. He will probably become suspicious but he will not detect you. If you do this quickly, you will be able to proceed up the steps and exit left into a chamber before yet another guard arrives. If you don't want the suspicion in your stats, before you swoop past the guard, you can shoot out a torch to his right front using a water arrow. Nevertheless, either way will not void any achievements so the technique you use is simply a matter of personal preference.
There will be a guard in the chamber at the top. Stay in the darkness, hugging the wall to Garrett's left. When you get to some boxes, climb up them. Your objective is to jump on a rope. You might have to wait for the guard to face away and take a few steps away from the rope. When he is far enough so that you will not be detected, jump on the rope, climb up, then jump on a second rope. When you are able, jump off onto the inner balcony. Exit via the west window. Follow the path until you are forced to jump on some pipes. Shimmy along the pipes to the exit.
Go forward to trigger the cut scene and end the mission. Depending on the choices you made at the very end, you will either end up with a pure ghost chapter playthrough or a predominantly ghost playthrough with a little bit of opportunism. Either way keeps us on track for our objective achievements. For completing chapter 3 for the first time, you will unlock:
Find anything you think is wrong with this walkthrough? Help us fix it by posting in its
Walkthrough Thread.
This walkthrough is the property of TrueTrophies.com. This walkthrough and any content included may not be reproduced without written permission. TrueTrophies.com and its users have no affiliation with any of this game's creators or copyright holders and any trademarks used herein belong to their respective owners.